South Korean video game company Krafton Inc. has announced Turkish PUBG team HOWL as winners of the PUBG EMEA Championship: Spring.
The team’s roster which comprised Yunus Emre ‘TheMad’ Ağaç, Ahmet Salih ‘RuerN’ Demirbaş, Semih Can ‘LAHZA’ Şahin, and Berke İdris ‘Scof1eld’ Öztürk defeated 15 other squads after three days of relentless action to claim the top prize of $25,000 from the $100,000 prize pool.
Aside from its prize money, HOWL has also been given automatic qualification to the PUBG Global Series 1 (PGS1) as well as 750 PUBG Global Champion (PGC) Points for its efforts.
European esports organisation Acend Club shared the final point total with HOWL but had fewer placement points so they took home a close second place and a direct invitation to PGS1.
PEC: Spring was the first opportunity for the EMEA teams to acquire the much coveted PGC Points required to qualify for PGC later this year as well as provide an opportunity for two non-Global Partner teams to play at PGS1.
And although the Turkish team qualified through the lower bracket of the PEC: Spring Playoffs, they spent most of the Grand Finals at the top of the leaderboard.
Towards the end of the final day, HOWL’s first-place position began to slip, entering the final game in second place and just when it didn’t seem like they would take home the win, RuerN got one last kill point which led to Exalt Esports falling just short of a Chicken Dinner.
Both HOWL and Acend Club have now qualified for PGS1. Exalt and FUT Esports both put on a dazzling show to secure victory but instead took third and fourth places respectively.
In the last three years, Krafton has hosted 40 official tournaments with 60 more run by partners and a total payout of $15 million in cumulative prize money.
